Working notes, observations, links and other errata from a Parliament Hill reporter in Ottawa, Canada.

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About "David Akin"

David Akin is a senior political reporter for the National Post and covers Canadian federal and electoral politics. He has covered five federal elections; nearly two dozen provincial elections; multiple G7, G8, G20, NATO, and Commonwealth Summits; the uprisings in Egypt in the spring of 2011; terror trials at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba; and hacker conferences in the Nevada desert. Akin has reported for a decade on Parliament Hill after spending a decade covering Bay Street. Akin received a Gemini Award for his reporting while he was a correspondent for CTV National News and received a National Newspaper Award certificate of merit while working as a contributing writer for The Globe and Mail.
Akin has long been one of Canada’s journalism pioneers when it comes to exploring ways to use digital media and computer-assisted tools for newsgathering and publishing.
A Montrealer by birth, Akin studied history at the University of Guelph. He lives near Ottawa with his wife and two children.

Members of Parliament spent a combined $71-million in the first six months of the year on travel and living expenses, running their constituency offices, promoting their activities with advertising, and buying meals and gifts for others.

Interim Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose led the way, spending just under $320,000 from January 1 to June 30, according to an exclusive National Post analysis of the expense reports of all 338 MPs.

For this project we looked at 24 separate expenses categories for all 338 MPs for the two most recent fiscal quarters. One of those categories was “Constituency leases, insurance and utilities.” At one end of the country, in the B.C. riding of Prince George–Cariboo, rookie Conservative MP Todd Doherty spent $8 on this category; at the other end of the country, in the Newfoundland riding of St. John’s East, rookie Nick Whalen spent more than $50,000 on the same thing in the first six months of the year. Read more…

That was Gerald Butts during last year’s election campaign tweeting a picture of former prime minister Stephen Harper’s last speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. Butts, then, was trying to help Justin Trudeau become prime minister. He did a great job at that and Trudeau won. Butts is now Trudeau’s principal secretary and it was Trudeau, today, who took Canada’s speaking slot at the 71st United Nations General Assembly, the annual parade of world leaders to the dais at UN headquarters in New York City to say whatever is on their mind.

Here’s some photos of the hall when Trudeau spoke today:

This one is pretty much the same angle as the pic tweeted by Butts. There’s a few more people here than Harper. But it’s still pretty empty.

And let’s pull out a bit and see different angles:

The pictures here were taken, incidentally, by the United Nations, the Canadian Press, the AFP and one’s a screen grab from the CBC.

The point is: It’s silly, as Butts tried to claim in his mid-election tweet, that we should measure the greatness of our statesmen or our states by the number of diplomats’ bums they can put in seats at the United Nations General Assembly.

This is the way it is always for any Canadian PM. The room is always empty.

In fact, this is the way it is for almost any leader. New UK PM Theresa May spoke just before Trudeau today and it was empty for her.

I’ve covered the UN leaders week three times and sat in that hall and watched leaders of China, Russia, France, Germany — you name it — speak to empty seats. The only leader that fills the hall every time is the president of the United States (no matter who s/he is).

That’s the just the way it is at the UN.

Diplomat Kevin McGurgan has this helpful perspective:

@davidakin To be fair, also depends on size of UN mission delegation. Not all missions are staffed to cover GA debate in full especially 1/2

Laurentian University President and Vice-Chancellor Dominic Giroux looks on as Paul Lefebvre, Member of Parliament for Sudbury, and Marc SerrŽ, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt on behalf of the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science,unveil a cheque $49,269,000 in funding for the Metal Earth project initiative at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. on Tuesday September 6, 2016. (Gino Donato/Sudbury Star/Postmedia Network)

OTTAWA — Canada’s self-styled feminist prime minister was praised Tuesday by one of the world’s most powerful women for his commitment to gender equality even as he was taking it on the chin from other women for appearing at a gender-segregated event the previous day.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde told reporters at a Parliament Hill news conference she was “appreciative” of Trudeau’s commitment to a government that was “gender-equal.” Trudeau had just told Lagarde the next Canadian representative to the IMF would be a woman, a first for the country.

Yet, Trudeau’s appearance Monday morning at a gender-segregated mosque in Ottawa brought criticism from some of the same women who had admired his work toward gender equality.Read the rest of the story …

Among the reaction to that story was a couple of comments like this: Read more…

While I’ve never covered energy issues as closely as other colleagues, I can’t recall anything like this ever happening particularly on a file as contentious or with such potential significance for the country. First, here’s some excerpts from the press release from the National Energy Board: Read more…